Teaching & Learning

NEA Foundation Focuses Giving On Closing Gap

The National Education Association Foundation announced a new grant
program last week that takes the philanthropy in a new direction:
toward closing the achievement gap between minority and low-income
students and their more affluent peers.

In what could wind up being the largest grant the foundation has
given, a partnership between the Hamilton County, Tenn., school
district and the Tennessee Education Association, an NEA affiliate, was
awarded the first such grant worth up to $2.5 million.

The foundation, the philanthropic arm of the NEA, has an endowment
of $41 million.

The district, which includes Chattanooga, plans to use the money to
recruit and retain highly qualified teachers, increase the rate at
which students go to college, decrease the need for remediation in
higher education, and foster family- and community-member involvement
with the schools.

Initially, the 40,000-student district will receive $500,000,
according to a press release. Over the course of five years, the school
system could receive another $2 million, depending on how well it meets
its own goals. In addition, the grant requires that the district close
its achievement gap by 2009.

"All of us are committed to working with the larger community to
close the achievement gap for our students, and believe that
teachers’ working together with businesses, families, and civic
leaders is the best way to raise the bar for our young, future
leaders," said Jesse Register, the Hamilton County superintendent.

Other finalists for the grant were the public school districts and
union affiliates in Des Moines, Iowa; Indianapolis; and Richmond, Va.
Though future plans are not firm, the NEA Foundation hopes to continue
with the program.

World History in Review

The most popular world history textbooks "provide unreliable, often
scanty information and provide poorly constructed activities," asserts
a recent review of the tomes by the American Textbook Council.

The evaluation of the 6th through 12th grade texts laments that at a
time when world history is the fastest-growing area in social studies
education, the books widely used in classrooms are inadequate to guide
instruction.

The New York City-based organization promotes textbooks that reflect
a rigorous study of history through strong narratives on significant
people and events. In other reviews of texts, including several on
American history, the council has criticized the trend toward using
more visual presentations and a bent toward multiculturalism that have
dominated texts of the last decade. Publishers have defended the books,
saying they reflect the extensive and complex requirements outlined in
many states’ textbook guidelines.

As part of the world history review, the council released a
preliminary report last year that criticized much of the books’
coverage of Islam. ("Review
of Islam in Texts Causes Furor," Feb. 19, 2003.)

The full review draws similar conclusions. While several of the
textbooks include strong content in some areas, the review says that,
on the whole, they tend to be overburdened by trivial information and
are overly critical of Western powers. In addition, the books ignore or
gloss over negative trends and events in non-Western nations, it
maintains, and they abandon the narrative format common in textbooks of
a generation ago, making for choppy, disconnected writing.

The critique examines seven textbooks that dominate the market in
several states, including California, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina,
and New York.

"What should be central topics and themes," the report contends,
"are compressed to make room for new topical material, some of it
ideologically loaded."

The review, by Gilbert T. Sewall, the council’s president, was
supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bodman Foundation,
and the Maytag Family Foundation.

Models in the Middle

New York state and Ohio have been added to the National Forum to
Accelerate Middle Grades Reform’s program of recognizing
outstanding middle schools. The states will join seven others—
California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, and
Virginia—in identifying "Schools to Watch," which began as a
national program in 1999. In that inaugural year, four schools were
identified as models of excellence. ("Standing Out," Oct. 4,
2000.)

The state-level program was established last year to expand the
Schools to Watch initiative and provide more models.

To be selected, schools must promote rigorous academics while
continuing to address students’ developmental needs and provide
equal educational opportunities to all students.

Classroom Management

Fed up with hearing foul language from a student in her classroom, a
high school reading teacher in Phoenix has won a restraining order
against the boy.

Elizabeth Anne Moore, who teaches a class for struggling readers at
Trevor G. Browne High School, part of the 23,500- student Phoenix Union
High School District, recently took her request before Lex Anderson, a
justice of the peace in Peoria, Ariz.

Mr. Anderson signed an order that prohibits the 15-year-old
sophomore from having any contact with Ms. Moore, either on or off
school grounds.

The youth also served a five-day suspension from school and was
transferred out of Ms. Moore’s class.

District officials, however, don’t expect Ms. Moore’s
actions to inspire other teachers to go such lengths to remove unruly
students.

"I think we saw a hue and a cry that somehow the school had let down
teachers universally," said Craig Pletenik, a spokesman for the
district. "But there are laws that allow for teachers to immediately
get someone out of class. I believe our schools are better equipped to
deal with these types of problems than they were 30 years ago."

The disciplinary measures against the student were taken before Ms.
Moore ever went to court, Mr. Pletenik added. The student was also
asked to sign a "behavioral contract" before returning to school.

Ms. Moore is teaching high school for the first time this year after
working at the elementary level.

Teachers’ Walk

Stroll through the heart of Hollywood if you want to walk on stars.
But, starting in September, if it’s teachers you’d like to
honor, a sidewalk in the San Fernando Valley’s Canoga Park makes
educators the stars—with hearts, no less.

The brainchild of a real estate agent and civic booster in the San
Fernando Valley, the "Walk of Hearts" is scheduled to open Sept. 3 on
Sherman Avenue. It will feature brass plaques incised with the name of
a "star" local teacher and embossed with a heart. Each plaque will
feature the saying "A teacher’s passion comes from the
heart."

"It’s a permanent way to say ‘thank you’ to
educators," said Joe Andrews, the founder, who co-owns real estate
offices in the nearby communities of Chatsworth and Northridge. "They
don’t get the recognition they deserve, when we’re always
giving accolades and kudos to athletes and movie stars," he said.

Mr. Andrews said the charm of main street in Canoga Park led him to
that spot for his version of Hollywood’s Walk of Stars.

The first 10 honorees were selected last month and include Clara
Rooksby, who founded what is now Canoga Park High School in the early
part of the last century, and the famed University of California, Los
Angeles, basketball coach and teacher John Wooden, who lives in the
area. Others are a middle school English teacher who started a
peer-counseling program and an auto-mechanics instructor nominated by a
student who became an automotive journalist.

The educators were selected by a 10-member committee of educators
and business people from essays written by colleagues, students, and
community members. The teachers must have worked in San Fernando Valley
schools. But Mr. Andrews is considering extending the reach of the
program, which is sponsored by the Canoga Park/Woodland Hills Chamber
of Commerce.

Museum Links

The intense focus on raising math and reading achievement in the
nation’s public schools has led to cuts in arts and social
studies programs in many places. Now, teachers in California will have
help in strengthening those subjects by linking the curriculum with a
renowned museum collection.

A $210,000 donation from Mouli Cohen, a San Francisco Bay- area
philanthropist and biotechnology entrepreneur, will pay for a series of
curriculum guides for grades 1 to 12 produced by the Fine Arts Museums
of San Francisco.

The guides, which will be available for free online, will feature
lessons related to collections at the newly renovated de Young Museum,
San Francisco’s oldest. Known for its educational programs, the
museum has collections of American paintings, arts and crafts, and
objects from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, and a collection of
Western and non-Western textiles.

"The breadth and depth of the de Young Museum’s collections
make it a valuable tool in the study of art and diverse world
cultures," said Sheila Pressley, the acting director of education for
the Fine Arts Museums. "By coordinating our various collections with
curriculum guidelines, the museum assumes an imperative role of
effectively supporting the public school system at a time when it needs
our support the most."

The guides, "Get Smart With Art at the de Young," are expected to be
available in October 2005, when the museum will reopen in a new
building.

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